Consumers often desire to know information regarding the many products in the household but the large number of consumer products makes keeping track of the condition of all products infeasible. Conditions that consumers often wish to know include age and time before replacement is necessary. At present, consumers often need to write a date on a product to keep track of its age of or continually check the amount remaining to estimate the time before replacement.
Many devices designed to dispense actives (also variously called dispensers) use refillable cartridges. Such devices include air fragrance dispensers. One problem encountered with such dispensers is that the cartridges are relatively long-lasting and when they finally do run out of product, the consumer is caught unprepared to replace the cartridge or they forget. Other products are used out of plain sight of the consumer. These devices include insect baits and traps. The consumer places them in hidden locations and may be unaware of whether they are being effective in controlling insects.
Consumers can place dates on products to know their age. Many freezer bags are provided with an area for marking the contents of the bag. To retrieve this information, the user needs to remove the bag from the freezer and read the information that has been imprinted on the bag and back compute the age from the date marked on the bag.
There is a need in the prior art for a single system able to track all products in a household and give information regarding the condition of the products, including age and amount of time before replacement.
It is an object of the invention to provide consumer items able to record and communicate condition of the product.
It is another object of the invention to provide products with RFID tags and a reader for storing information regarding the products and a reader for communicating this information to the consumer.
It is another object of the invention to provide a system for recording and communicating condition of a large number of items.
It is still another object of the invention to display information to the user by placing a reader in proximity to the item.
It is yet another object of the invention to use an RFID tag on a product to provide instructions to a recharger.
It is another object of the invention to provide consumers with information regarding products within the household.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after reviewing the disclosure of the invention.